Jason DeMarco To Lead Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios’ Anime Production Efforts

Adult Swim Senior Vice President, Head of Anime and Action Series Jason DeMarco has taken on the role of Senior Vice President, Anime and Action Series/Longform at Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios.  

WarnerMedia’s press release says that DeMarco will “spearhead WBA and CNS’ expansion into producing anime content.” He will also be “responsible for identifying and developing projects in the animated action genre.”

“In both cases he will pursue properties – original, library and third-party – to develop and produce series and longform programming for all audiences,” adds the press release. 

On Twitter, DeMarco said that the anime that WBA and CNS are producing are “anime as in ‘created and produced in Japan.’ Not ‘anime-esque’ as in Avatar or Castlevania, although I’m interested in that sort of production too.” One of DeMarco’s first projects for WBA is the Sola Entertainment-produced anime film The Lord of the Rings: The War of The Rohirrim, on which he is serving as lead creative executive.

When asked by a Twitter user about overworked anime studios, DeMarco responded, “Yeah we don’t do that. And we won’t. It’s up to studios in Japan to decide how much work they can take on, but we always ask them to provide realistic timelines and our mantra is ‘it’s done when it’s done.’ See Uzumaki for proof of this in action.”

The four-episode Uzumaki, which was announced in 2019, had been delayed twice, first from 2020 to 2021, then recently from 2021 to 2022. In a video from June this year, Uzumaki director Hiroshi Nagahama said that COVID-19 had caused the team to “restructure” the production. He also said that the “way we are making this anime is requiring twice as much staff as we normally use.”

DeMarco will still retain his role as Senior Vice President, Head of Anime and Action Series at Adult Swim, where he is currently overseeing production of Fena: Pirate Princess, Uzumaki, and Blade Runner: Black Lotus. However, he noted that he “won’t be involved in marketing or promotion for anything at Adult Swim beyond Toonami” due to his new role at WBA and CNS.

Source: Press release